CAST: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson, Ken Stott, Romola Garai, Rafe Spall;DIRECTOR: Lone Scherfig;WRITER: David Nicholls;GENRE: Romance, Drama;RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes
Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 2
CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 18 and above
July 15, 1988 is the graduation day of Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Strugess) – a friendship and an almost-but-not-quite romance between the two begins on this day and their lives are never the same. Every July 15ths of the next two decades, they meet to catch up on each eventhough they have gone separate ways. Each time, they explore the possibilities of their failed romance and why can’t it happen between them. They are exact opposites. Emma is a working-class girl who dreams of becoming a writer in the hope of making a difference in the world. Dexter is a happy-go-lucky rich kid who ends up as a TV presenter and sees the world as his playground. She is determined. He is directionless. They will later on be both involved with different partners but still, they would always end up with the wishful thinking – what if, they will be together? Will it be a happy ending for the two of them?
One Day could’ve been a well-crafted movie except for two major problems: plot development and casting. The premise of two platonic friends with that “would be” romance is interesting and is able to keep the audience’s concern for the couple. However, the interest wades down as there is no urgency or stake to look forward to. The relationship of the two and their problems does not seem to escalate and years after, they still have the same issues that are never resolved. Hathaway and Strugess are both good thespians in their own credits and merits but they apparently lack the required characterization and chemistry for the film. Though it’s not really their fault, it is quite a waste for a film like One Day which is intently done to put some flavor and spice to the otherwise worn-out story of the genre.
The film deals with sexual tension between friends of the opposite sex. Sort of saying that a man and a woman cannot be “just friends”. The promiscuity of Dexter though is not tolerated by the rather level-headed Emma but she gives up somehwere in the story anyway and the initial refusal is just a “show” or a result of initial reaction to rejection but not on any moral grounding. The inconsitencies in the characters’ decisions and indecisions leave the audience as confused as the characters. Although One Day probably tries to show that only real love can make one happy, and that loneliness results into misery, the many scenes devoted to sex, alcohol and drugs contradict any moral it has to say. Dexter all the while in the movie seeks love and sympathy but he does not seem to deserve it until the end. Emma on the other hand seems to have taken all the sacrifice for the wrong choices she makes. In conclusion, One Day is a film that tells the audience that fate is as powerful, if not more powerful, than the decisions one makes. Still quite contradictory to what our faith would always tell us, that our destiny is determined by our own free-will.
